chapter 4 View of the moon from Apollo 8. [ 97] NASA's first four manned spaceflight projects were Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab. As the first U.S. manned spaceflight project, Project Mercury-which included two manned suborbital flights and four orbital flights-"fostered Project Apollo and fathered Project Gemini." 1 The second manned spaceflight project initiated was the Apollo manned lunar exploration program. The national goal of a manned lunar landing in the 1960s was set forth by President John F. Kennedy 25 May 1961: . . . I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goals, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.... But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon-if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation.

2 The interim Project Gemini, completed in 1966, was conducted to provide spaceflight experience, techniques, and training in preparation for the complexities of Apollo lunar-landing missions. Project Skylab was originality conceived as a program to use hardware developed for Project Apollo in related manned spaceflight missions; it evolved into the Orbital Workshop program with three record-breaking missions in 1973-1974 to man the laboratory in earth orbit, producing new data on the sun, earth resources, materials technology, and effects of space on man. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was an icebreaking effort in international cooperation. The United States and the U.S.S.R. were to fly a joint mission in 1975 to test new systems that permitted their spacecraft to dock with each other in orbit, for space rescue or joint research. As technology and experience broadened man's ability to explore and use space, post-Apollo planning called for ways to make access to space more practical, more economical, nearer to routine. Early advanced studies grew into the Space Shuttle program.

Development of the reusable space transportation system, to be used for most of the Nation's manned and unmanned missions in the 1980s, became the major focus of NASA's program for the 1970s. European nations cooperated by undertaking development of Spacelab, a pressurized, reusable laboratory to be flown in the Shuttle. [ 98] Apollo 11 command and service module being readied for transport to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, in left photo. Apollo 11 Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., below, setting up an experiment on the moon next to the lunar module. Opposite: the Greek god Apollo (courtesy of George Washington University). . [ 99] APOLLO. In July 1960 NASA was preparing to implement its long-range plan beyond Project Mercury and to introduce a manned circumlunar mission project-then unnamed-at the NASA/Industry Program Plans Conference in Washington.

Abe Silverstein, Director of Space Flight Development, proposed the name "Apollo" because it was the name of a god in ancient Greek mythology with attractive connotations and the precedent for naming manned spaceflight projects for mythological gods and heroes had been set with Mercury. 1 Apollo was god of archery, prophecy, poetry, and music, and most significantly he was god of the sun. In his horse-drawn golden chariot, Apollo pulled the sun in its course across the sky each day. 2 NASA approved the name and publicly announced "Project Apollo" at the July 28-29 conference. 3 Project Apollo took new form when the goal of a manned lunar landing was proposed to the Congress by President John F. Kennedy 25 May 1961 and was subsequently approved by the Congress. It was a program of three-man flights, leading to the landing of men on the moon. Rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit of Apollo spacecraft components were vital techniques for the intricate flight to and return from the moon.

The Apollo spacecraft consisted of the command module, serving as the crew's quarters and flight control section; the service module, containing propulsion and spacecraft support systems; and the lunar module, carrying [ 100] two crewmen to the lunar surface, supporting them on the moon, and returning them to the command and service module in lunar orbit. Module designations came into use in 1962, when NASA made basic decisions on the flight mode (lunar orbit rendezvous), the boosters, and the spacecraft for Project Apollo. From that time until June 1966, the lunar module was called "lunar excursion module (LEM)." It was renamed by the NASA Project Designation Committee because the word "excursion" implied mobility on the moon and this vehicle did not have that capability. 4 The later Apollo flights, beginning with Apollo 15, carried the lunar roving vehicle (LRV), or "Rover," to provide greater mobility for the astronauts while on the surface of the moon. Beginning with the flight of Apollo 9, code names for both the command and service module (CSM) and lunar module (LM) were chosen by the astronauts who were to fly on each mission.

The code names were: Apollo 9-"Gumdrop" (CSM), "Spider" (LM); Apollo 10-"Charlie Brown" (CSM), "Snoopy" (LM); Apollo 11-"Columbia" (CSM), "Eagle" (LM); Apollo 12-"Yankee Clipper" (CSM), "Intrepid" (LM); Apollo 13-"Odyssey" (CSM), "Aquarius" (LM); Apollo 14-"Kitty Hawk" (CSM), "Antares" (LM); Apollo 15-"Endeavour" (CSM), "Falcon" (LM); Apollo 16-"Casper" (CSM), "Orion" (LM); Apollo 17-"America" (CSM); "Challenger" (LM). The formula for numbering Apollo missions was altered when the three astronauts scheduled for the first manned flight lost their lives in a flash fire during launch rehearsal 27 January 1967. In honor of Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B.

Chaffee, the planned mission was given the name "Apollo l " although it was not launched. Carrying the prelaunch designation AS-204 for the fourth launch in the Apollo Saturn IB series, the mission was officially recorded as "First manned Apollo Saturn flight-failed on ground test. " Manned Spacecraft Center Deputy Director George M. Low had urged consideration of the request from the astronauts' widows that the designation "Apollo l"-used by the astronauts publicly and included on their insignia-be retained. NASA Headquarters Office of Manned Space Flight therefore recommended the new numbering, and the NASA Project Designation Committee announced approval 3 April 1967. The earlier, unmanned Apollo Saturn IB missions AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203 were not given "Apollo" flight numbers and no missions were named "Apollo 2" and "Apollo 3." The next mission flown, the first Saturn V flight (AS-501, for Apollo Saturn V No. 1), skipped numbers.... [ 102] The Apollo spacecraft approaches the Soyuz for docking in orbit, in the artist's conception at top. Cosmonaut Aleksey A.

Leonov and Astronaut Donald K. Slayton check out the docking module in a 1974 training session. [ 103] ...participation, and President Nixon included this goal in his March 1970 Space Policy Statement. The President earlier had approved NASA plans for increasing international cooperation in an informal meeting with Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry A. Kissinger, and NASA Administrator Thomas 0. Paine aboard Air Force One while flying to the July Apollo 11 splashdown. 1 The United States had invited the U.S.S.R. to participate in experiments and information exchange over the past years. Now Dr. Paine sent Soviet Academy of Sciences President Mstislav V. Keldysh a copy of the U.S. post-Apollo plans and suggested exploration of cooperative programs. In April 1970 Dr. Paine suggested, in an informal meeting with Academician Anatoly A. Blagonravov in New York, that the two nations cooperate on astronaut safety, including compatible docking equipment on space stations and shuttles to permit rescue operations in space emergencies.

Further discussions led to a 28 October 1970 agreement on joint efforts to design compatible docking arrangements. Three working groups were set up. Agreements on further details were reached in Houston, Texas, 21-25 June 1971 and in Moscow 29 November-6 December 1971. NASA Deputy Administrator George M. Low and a delegation met with a Soviet delegation in Moscow 4-6 April 1972 to draw up a plan for docking a U.S. Apollo spacecraft with a Russian Soyuz in earth orbit in 1975. 2 Final official approval came in Moscow on 24 May 1972. U.S. President Nixon and U.S.S.R. Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin signed the Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, including development of compatible spacecraft docking systems to improve safety of manned space flight and to make joint scientific experiments possible. The first flight to test the systems was to be in 1975, with modified Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. Beyond this mission, future manned spacecraft of the two nations would be able to dock with each other.

3 During work that followed, engineers at Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed Johnson Space Center in 1973) shortened the lengthy "joint rendezvous and docking mission" to "Rendock," as a handy project name. But the NASA Project Designation Committee in June 1972 approved the official designation as "Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)," incorporating the names of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. spacecraft. The designation was sometimes written "Apollo/Soyuz Test Project," but the form "Apollo Soyuz Test Project" was eventually adopted. NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences announced the official ASTP emblem in March 1974. The circular emblem displayed the English word "Apollo" and the Russian [ 104] word " Soyuz" on either side of a center globe with a superimposed silhouette of the docked spacecraft. 4 Scheduled for July 1975, the first international manned space mission would carry out experiments with astronauts and cosmonauts working together, in addition to testing the new docking systems and procedures.

A three-module, two-man Soviet Soyuz was to be launched from the U.S.S.R.'s Baykonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam on 15 July. Some hours later the modified Apollo command and service module with added docking module and a three-man crew would lift off on the Apollo-Skylab Saturn IB launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center, to link up with the Soyuz. The cylindrical docking module would serve as an airlock for transfer of crewmen between the different atmospheres of the two spacecraft. After two days of flying joined in orbit, with crews working together, the spacecraft would undock for separate activities before returning to the earth. 5 GEMINI. In 1961 planning was begun on an earth-orbital rendezvous program to follow the Mercury project and prepare for Apollo missions. The improved or "Advanced Mercury" concept was designated "Mercury Mark II" by Glenn F. Bailey, NASA Space Task Group Contracting Officer, and John Y. Brown of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. 1 The two-man spacecraft was based on the one-man Mercury capsule, enlarged and made capable of longer flights.

Its major purposes were to develop the technique of rendezvous in space with another spacecraft and to extend orbital flight time. NASA Headquarters personnel were asked for proposals for an appropriate name for the project and, in a December 1961 speech at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., then NASA Associate Administrator, described Mercury Mark II, adding an offer of a token reward to the person suggesting the name finally accepted. A member of the audience sent him the name "Gemini." Meanwhile, Alex P. Nagy in NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight also had proposed " Gemini." Dr. Seamans recognized both as authors of the name. 2 "Gemini," meaning "twins" in Latin, was the name of the third constellation of the zodiac, made up of the twin stars Castor and Pollux. To Nagy it seemed an appropriate connotation for the two-man crew, a rendezvous mission, and the project's relationship to Mercury. Another connotation of the mythological twins was that they were considered to be the patron gods of voyagers.

3 The nomination was selected from several made in NASA Headquarters, including "Diana," "Valiant," and "Orpheus".... [ 110] Skylab Orbital Workshop photographed from the Skylab 2 command module during fly-around inspection. The Workshop's remaining solar array wing, after second wing was ripped off during launch, is deployed below the ATM's four arrays. The emergency solar parasol erected by the astronauts is visible on the lower part of the spacecraft. The cutaway drawing shows crew quarters and work areas. [ 111] They were followed by two more three-man crews during 1973 . The Skylab 3 crew spent 59 days in space and Skylab 4 spent 84. Each Skylab mission was the longest-duration manned space flight to that date, also setting distance in-orbit and extravehicular records.

Skylab 4, the final mission (16 November 1973 to 8 February 1974) recorded the longest in-orbit EVA (7 hours 1 minute), the longest cumulative orbital EVA time for one mission (22 hours 21 min in four EVAs), and the longest distance in orbit for a manned mission (55.5 million kilometers). The Skylab missions proved that man could live and work in space for extended periods; expanded solar astronomy beyond earth-based observations, collecting new data that could revise understanding of the sun and its effects on the earth; and returned much information from surveys of earth resources with new techniques. The deactivated Workshop remained in orbit; it might be visited by a future manned flight, but was not to be inhabited again. SPACE SHUTTLE. The name " Space Shuttle" evolved from descriptive references in the press, aerospace industry, and Government and gradually came into use as concepts of reusable space transportation developed. As early NASA advanced studies grew into a full program, the name came into official use. * 1 From its establishment in 1958, NASA studied aspects of reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft that could return to the earth.

The predecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and then NASA cooperated with the Air Force in the X-15 rocket research aircraft program in the 1950s and 1960s and in the 1958-1963 Dyna-Soar ("Dynamic-Soaring") hypersonic boost-glide vehicle program. Beginning in 1963, NASA joined the USAF in research toward the Aerospaceplane, a manned vehicle to go into orbit and return, taking off and landing horizontally. Joint flight tests in the 1950s and 1960s of wingless lifting bodies-the M2 series, HL-10, and eventually the X-24-tested principles for future spacecraft reentering the atmosphere. Marshall Space Flight Center sponsored studies of recovery and reuse of the Saturn V launch vehicle. MSFC Director of Future Projects Heinz H. Koelle in 1962 projected a "commercial space line to earth orbit and the.... .

The Space Shuttle lifts off in the artist's conception of missions of the 1980s, at left, with booster jettison and tank jettison following in sequence as the orbiter heads for orbit and its mission. ....moon," for cargo transportation by 1980 or 1990. Leonard M. Tinnan of MSFC published a 1963 description of a winged, flyback Saturn V. 2 Other studies of "logistics spacecraft systems," "orbital carrier vehicles," and "reusable orbital transports" followed throughout the 1960s in NASA, the Department of Defense, and industry. [ 113] As the Apollo program neared its goal, NASA's space program objectives widened and the need for a fully reusable, economical space transportation system for both manned and unmanned missions became more urgent. In 1966 the NASA budget briefing outlined an FY 1967 program including advanced studies of "ferry and logistics vehicles." The President's Science Advisory Committee in February 1967 recommended studies of more economical ferry systems with total recovery and rescue possibilities.

3 Industry studies under NASA contracts 1969-1971 led to definition of a reusable Space Shuttle system and to a 1972 decision to develop the Shuttle. The term "shuttle" crept into forecasts of space transportation at least as early as 1952. In a Collier's article, Dr. Wernher von Braun, then Director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group, envisioned space stations supplied by rocket ships that would enter orbit and return to earth to land "like a normal airplane," with small, rocket-powered "shuttle-craft," or "space taxis," to ferry men and materials between rocket ship and space station. 4 In October 1959 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and Hughes Aircraft Company reported plans for a space ferry or "commuter express," for " shuttling" men and materials between earth and outer space. In December, Christian Science Monitor Correspondent Courtney Sheldon wrote of the future possibility of a "man-carrying space shuttle to the nearest planets." 5 The term reappeared occasionally in studies through the early 1960s.

A 1963 NASA contract to Douglas Aircraft Company was to produce a conceptual design for Philip Bono's "Reusable Orbital Module Booster and Utility Shuttle (ROMBUS)," to orbit and return to touch down with legs [ 114] like the lunar landing module's. Jettison of eight strap-on hydrogen tanks for recovery and reuse was part of the concept. 6 The press-in accounts of European discussions of Space Transporter proposals and in articles on the Aerospaceplane, NASA contract studies, USAF START reentry studies, and the joint lifting-body flights-referred to "shuttle" service, "reusable orbital shuttle transport," and "space shuttle" forerunners. ** In 1965 Dr. Walter R. Dornberger, Vice President for Research of Textron Corporation's Bell Aerosystems Company, published "Space Shuttle of the Future: The Aerospaceplane" in Bell's periodical Rendezvous. In July Dr. Dornberger gave the main address in a University of Tennessee Space Institute short course: "The Recoverable, Reusable Space Shuttle." 7 NASA used the term "shuttle" for its reusable transportation concept officially in 1968.

Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller briefed the British Interplanetary Society in London in August with charts and drawings of "space shuttle" operations and concepts. In November, addressing the National Space Club in Washington, D.C., Dr. Mueller declared the next major thrust in space should be the space shuttle. 8 By 1969 "Space Shuttle" was the standard NASA designation, although some efforts were made to find another name as studies were pursued. 9 The "Space Shuttle" was given an agency-wide code number; the Space Shuttle Steering Group and Space Shuttle Task Group were established. In September the Space Task Group appointed by President Nixon to help define post-Apollo space objectives recommended the U.S. develop a reusable, economic space transportation system including a shuttle. And in October feasibility study results were presented at a Space Shuttle Conference in Washington. Intensive design, technology, and cost studies followed in 1970 and 1971. 10 [ 115] On 5 January 1972 President Nixon announced that the United States would develop the Space Shuttle.

The Space Shuttle would be a delta-winged aircraftlike orbiter about the size of a DC-9 aircraft, mounted at launch on a large, expendable liquid-propellant tank and two recoverable and reusable solid-propellant rocket boosters (SRBs) that would drop away in flight. The Shuttle's cargo bay eventually would carry most of the Nation's civilian and military payloads. Each Shuttle was to have a lifetime of 100 space missions, carrying up to 29 500 kilograms at a time. Sixty or seventy flights a year were expected in the 1980s. Flown by a three-man crew, the Shuttle would carry satellites to orbit, repair them in orbit, and later return them to earth for refurbishment and reuse. It would also carry up to four scientists and engineers to work in a pressurized laboratory (see Spacelab) or technicians to service satellites. After a 7- to 30-day mission, the orbiter would return to earth and land like an aircraft, for preparation for the next flight. At the end of 1974, parts were being fabricated, assembled, and tested for flight vehicles.

Horizontal tests were to begin in 1977 and orbital tests in 1979. The first manned orbital flight was scheduled for March 1979 and the complete vehicle was to be operational in 1980. SPACE TUG. Missions to orbits higher than 800 kilometers would require an additional propulsion stage for the Space Shuttle. A reusable "Space Tug" would fit into the cargo bay to deploy and retrieve payloads beyond the orbiter's reach and to achieve earth-escape speeds for deep-space exploration. Under a NASA and Department of Defense agreement, the Air Force was to develop an interim version-the "interim upper stage (IUS)," named by the Air Force the "orbit-to-orbit stage (OOS)," to be available in 1980. NASA meanwhile continued planning and studies for a later full-capacity Space Tug. 11 Joseph E. McGolrick of the NASA Office of Launch Vehicles had used the term in a 1961 memorandum suggesting that, as capabilities and business in space increased, a need might arise for "a space tug-a space vehicle capable of orbital rendezvous and . . .

of imparting velocities to other bodies in space." He foresaw a number of uses for such a vehicle and suggested it be considered with other concepts for the period after 1970. McGolrick thought of the space tug as an all-purpose workhorse, like the small, powerful tugboats that moved huge ocean liners and other craft. The name was used frequently in studies and proposals through the years, and in September 1969 the Presidential Space Task Group's recommendation for a [ 116] new space transportation system proposed development of a reusable, chemically propelled space tug, as well as a shuttle and a nuclear stage. 12 LARGE SPACE TELESCOPE. Among Shuttle payloads planned-besides Spacelab and satellites like those launched in the past by expendable boosters-was the Large Space Telescope (LST), to be delivered to orbit as an international facility for in-orbit research controlled by scientists on the ground. The LST would observe the solar system and far galaxies from above the earth's atmosphere. On revisits, the Shuttle would service the orbiting telescope, exchange scientific hardware, and-several years later-return the LST to the earth. LONG-DURATION EXPOSURE FACILITY.

Another payload was to be placed in orbit for research into effects of exposure to space. The unmanned, free-flying Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) would expose a variety of passive experiments in orbit and would later be retrieved for refurbishment and reuse. SPACELAB. A new venture in space flight made possible by the Space Shuttle, Spacelab was to be a reusable "space laboratory" in which scientists and engineers could work in earth orbit without spacesuits or extensive astronaut training. The program drew the United States and Europe into closer cooperation in space efforts. The name finally chosen for the space laboratory was that used by the European developers. It followed several earlier names used as NASA's program developed toward its 1980s operational goal. In 1971 NASA awarded a contract for preliminary design of "Research and Applications Modules" (RAMs) to fly on the Space Shuttle. A family of manned or "man-tended" payload carriers, the RAMs were to provide versatile laboratory facilities for research and applications work in earth orbit. Later modules were expected to be attached to space stations, in addition to the earlier versions operating attached to the Shuttle.

The simplest RAM mode was called a "Sortie Can" at Marshall Space Flight Center. It was a low-cost simplified. pressurized laboratory to be carried on the Shuttle orbiter for short "sortie" missions into space. 1 In June 1971 the NASA Project Designation Committee redesignated the Sortie Can the "Sortie Lab," as a more fitting name. 2 When the President's Space Task Group had originally recommended development of the Space Shuttle in 1969, it had also recommended broad international participation in the space program, and greater international cooperation was one of President Nixon's Space Policy Statement goals in March 1970. NASA Administrator Thomas 0. Paine visited European.... [ 117] A Spacelab module and pallet fill the payload bay of a scale-model Space Shuttle orbiter. The laboratory module is nearest the cabin. ...capitals in October 1969 to explain Shuttle plans and invite European interest, and 43 European representatives attended a Shuttle Conference in Washington. One area of consideration for European effort was development of the Sortie Lab.

3 On 20 December 1972 a European Space Council ministerial meeting formally endorsed European Space Research Organization development of Sortie Lab. An intergovernmental agreement was signed 10 August 1973 and ESRO and NASA initialed a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum was signed 24 September 1973. Ten nations-Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom-would develop and manufacture the units. The first unit was to be delivered to NASA free in the cooperative program, and NASA would buy additional units. NASA would fly Spacelab on the Shuttle in cooperative missions, in U.S. missions, and for other countries with costs reimbursed. 4 In its planning and studies, ESRO called the laboratory "Spacelab." And when NASA and ESRO signed the September 1973 memorandum on cooperation NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher announced that NASA's Sortie Lab program was officially renamed "Spacelab," adopting the ESRO name.

5 [ 118] Spacelab was designed as a low-cost laboratory to be quickly available to users for a wide variety of orbital research and applications. Almost half the civilian Space Shuttle payloads were expected to fly in Spacelab in the 1980s. It was to consist of two elements, carried together or separately in the Shuttle orbiter: a pressurized laboratory, where scientists and engineers with only brief flight training could work in a normal environment, and an instrument platform, or "pallet," to support telescopes, antennas, and other equipment exposed to space. Reusable for 50 flights, the laboratory would remain in the Shuttle hold, or cargo bay, while in orbit, with the bay doors held open for experiments and observations in space. Seven-man missions, many of them joint missions with U.S. and European crew members, would include a three-man Shuttle crew and four men for Spacelab. Up to three men could work in the laboratory at one time, with missions lasting 7 to 30 days. At the end of each flight, the orbiter would make a runway landing and the laboratory would be removed and prepared for its next flight.

Racks of experiments would be prepared in the home laboratories on the ground, ready for installation in Spacelab for flight and then removal on return. 6 One of the planned payloads was NASA's AMPS (Atmospheric, Magnetospheric, and Plasmas-in-Space) laboratory, to be installed in Spacelab for missions in space. 7 At the end of 1974, life scientists, astronomers, atmospheric physicists, and materials scientists were defining experiment payloads for Spacelab. The first qualified flight unit was due for delivery in 1979 for 1980 flight. A European might be a member of the first flight crew. 8 * In January 1975, NASA's Project Designation Committee was considering suggestions for a new name for the Space Shuttle, submitted by Headquarters and Center personnel and others at the request of Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator. Rockwell International Corporation, Shuttle prime contractor, was reported as referring to it as "Spaceplane." (Bernie M. Taylor, Administrative Assistant to Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, NASA, telephone interview, 12 Feb.

1975; and Aviation Week & Space Technology, 102 [20 January 1975], 10.) ** The Defense/Space Business Daily newsletter was persistent in referring to USAF and NASA reentry and lifting-body tests as "Space Shuttle" tests. Editor-in-Chief Norman L. Baker said the newsletter had first tried to reduce the name "Aerospaceplane" to "Spaceplane" for that project and had moved from that to "Space Shuttle" for reusable, back-and-forth space transport concepts as early as 1963. The name was suggested to him by the Washington, D.C., to New York airline shuttle flights. (Telephone interview, 22 April 1975.) Application of the word "shuttle" to anything that moved quickly back and forth (from shuttlecock to shuttle train and the verb "to shuttle") had arisen in the English language from the name of the weaving instrument that passed or "shot" the thread of the woof from one edge of the cloth to the other.

The English word came from the Anglo-Saxon "scytel" for missile, related to the Danish "skyttel" for shuttle, the Old Norvegian "skutill" for harpoon, and the English "shoot." (Webster's International Dictionnary, ed.2 unabridged). Charles M. Schulz, 'Peanuts' Creator, Dies at 77 Charles M. Schulz, 'Peanuts' Creator, Dies at 77 By SARAH BOXER Charles M. Schulz, the creator of ''Peanuts,'' the tender and sage comic strip starring Charlie Brown and Snoopy that is read by 355 million people around the world, died in his sleep on Saturday night at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif., just hours before his last cartoon ran in the Sunday newspapers. He was 77. The cause of death was colon cancer, said Paige Braddock, creative director for Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. Mr. Schulz drew ''Peanuts'' for nearly half a century. He swore that no one else would ever draw the comic strip and he kept his word.

For years he drew ''Peanuts'' with a hand tremor. He finally put down his pen when he received a diagnosis of colon cancer after abdominal surgery in November. His last daily strip ran on Jan. 3. His last Sunday page, which ran yesterday, carried a signed farewell in which he said, ''Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy . . . how can I ever forget them. . . .'' His wife, Jeannie, said, ''He had done everything he wanted.'' Lynn Johnston, a friend of Mr. Schulz and the creator of ''For Better or for Worse,'' told The Associated Press, ''It's amazing that he dies just before his last strip is published.'' Such an ending, she said, was ''as if he had written it that way.'' She recalled something Mr. Schulz told her as she sat in the hospital with him last year: ''You control all these characters and the lives they live. You decide when they get up in the morning, when they're going to fight with their friends, when they're going to lose the game. Isn't it amazing how you have no control over your real life?'' But, Ms.

Johnston said, ''I think, in a way, he did.'' The life of ''Peanuts'' and Charles Schulz were completely intertwined. ''The strip and he were one,'' said Patrick McDonnell, who draws the cartoon ''Mutts.'' ''He put his heart and soul into that strip.'' ''Peanuts,'' which reached readers in 75 countries, 2,600 papers and 21 languages every day, made Mr. Schulz very rich. The ''Peanuts'' strips, merchandise and product endorsements brought in $1.1 billion a year. And Mr. Schulz was said to have earned about $30 million to $40 million annually. His saga of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and Linus ''is arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,'' Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, observed on the PBS ''NewsHour'' with Jim Lehrer, longer than any epic poem, any Tolstoy novel, any Wagner opera. In all Mr. Schulz drew more than 18,250 strips in nearly 50 years.

Jules Feiffer, the cartoonist and playwright, said that the ''Peanuts'' characters endure because they were the first real children in the comics pages, ones with doubts and anxieties. And there were a lot of them. ''Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown -- these interesting little people formed a repertory company,'' he said. A Long-Running Ensemble Act The cast of ''Peanuts'' changed remarkably little. It included Charlie Brown, a wishy-washy boy with a tree-loving kite and a losing baseball team; Snoopy, an unflappable beagle with a fancy inner life; Lucy, a fussbudget with a football and a curbside psychiatric clinic; Linus, a philosophical blanket-carrier; Sally, Charlie Brown's romantic little sister; Schroeder, a virtuoso on the toy piano and a Beethoven devotee; Peppermint Patty, a narcoleptic D-minus student; and, in later years, Woodstock, a small, expressive but speechless bird. Mr. Schulz remembered waking up in the night many years ago and thinking, ''Good grief, who are all these little people? Must I live with them for the rest of my life?'' The answer was yes.

Charles Monroe Schulz, the son of Carl Schulz, a barber, like Charlie Brown's father, and the former Dena Halverson, was born in Minneapolis on Nov. 26, 1922. Young Charles was nicknamed Sparky after the horse Spark Plug in the comic strip ''Barney Google.'' He had a black-and-white dog named Spike (memorialized in the character of Snoopy's skinny Western brother). He wanted to be a cartoonist as a child and practiced by drawing Popeye. ''Someday, Charles, you're going to be an artist,'' a kindergarten teacher told him after looking at his drawing of a man shoveling snow. His ambition was to do a comic strip as good as George Herriman's ''Krazy Kat,'' but Mr. Schulz also admired Picasso, Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. Snoopy kept a van Gogh and a Wyeth in his doghouse. The hurts of Mr. Schulz's early years provided a lifetime of material. At Central High School in St. Paul, he flunked Latin, English, algebra and physics.

''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' accepted one of his drawings when he was 15 -- a picture of Spike illustrating ''a hunting dog that eats pins, tacks and razor blades'' -- but the cartoons he drew for his high school yearbook were rejected. Mr. Schulz remembered his failures more vividly than his successes. After his high school graduation he took a correspondence course from Art Instruction Inc., but before he could start a career he was drafted into the Army. He left for boot camp only days after his mother died of cancer. (Mr. Schulz later suggested that this coincidence might have been the reason for his lifelong hatred of travel.) During World War II, from 1943 to 1945, Mr. Schulz served in France and Germany and became a staff sergeant in the 20th Armored Division. He once refused to toss a grenade into an artillery emplacement because he saw a little dog wander into it. After the war he tried various odd jobs: lettering the comics at a Catholic magazine called Timeless Topix; drawing a weekly cartoon called ''Li'l Folks,'' the precursor to ''Peanuts,'' for the St.

Paul Pioneer Press; and selling occasional spot cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post. He also taught at Art Instruction Inc. There he fell in love with a redhead, Donna Johnson, and proposed marriage. She turned him down and married a fireman instead. He never forgot. Ms. Johnson became the Little Red-Haired Girl, Charlie Brown's unrequited love, who was often talked about but never seen in the strip. Mr. Schulz married Joyce Halverson in 1949; the marriage ended in divorce. ''You can't create humor out of happiness,'' Mr. Schulz said in his 1980 book, ''Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Me.'' ''I'm astonished at the number of people who write to me saying, 'Why can't you create happy stories for us? Why does Charlie Brown always have to lose? Why can't you let him kick the football?' Well, there is nothing funny about the person who gets to kick the football.'' The strip's start was bittersweet. In 1949 Mr. Schulz submitted some of his ''Li'l Folks'' comic strips to United Feature Syndicate.

The syndicate liked the strip but insisted on calling it ''Peanuts'' because ''Li'l Folks'' was too similar to the name of another strip. ''I was very upset with the title,'' Mr. Schulz once said, ''and still am.'' On Oct. 2, 1950, the first ''Peanuts'' strip was published. It depicted two children sitting on the sidewalk discussing Charlie Brown: ''Well, here comes ol' Charlie Brown!'' . . . ''Good ol' Charlie Brown'' . . . ''Yes, sir! Good ol' Charlie Brown.'' And then, as Charlie Brown passes them, ''How I hate him!'' That year seven newspapers bought ''Peanuts,'' and Mr. Schulz earned $90 a week in royalties. But by 1953 the cartoon was a hit and he was earning $30,000 a year. In 1955 (and again in 1964) the National Cartoonists Society awarded Mr. Schulz the Reuben for being the outstanding cartoonist of the year.

He received the Yale Humor Award in 1956 and the School Bell Award from the National Education Association in 1960. Unrequited Love With Roots in Real Life ''Peanuts'' was based on repetition and predictability. As Mr. Schulz put it, ''All the loves in the strip are unrequited; all the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; the Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away.'' One of the few innovations Mr. Schulz introduced was allowing Snoopy (after eight years) to stand on two feet and to have his thoughts written out in balloons. Snoopy could always be counted on to nap, fantasize and wonder when his next meal would arrive. Charlie Brown, the round-headed blockhead (named after one of Mr. Schulz's childhood friends, not after the cartoonist himself), could always be counted on to persevere despite constant failure. He once held onto the string of a kite that was stuck in a tree for eight days running, until the rain made him stop. At the time it was the longest run of immobility for any cartoon character.

His first home run came after nearly 43 years of strike outs, on March 30, 1993. No adult ever appeared in ''Peanuts,'' though in television specials there were occasional wah-wah sounds denoting the voices of teachers and parents. As Mr. Schulz once put it, ''Well, there just isn't room for them.'' Curses never got worse than ''Aaugh!'' ''Good grief,'' ''Rats!'' ''Curse you, Red Baron!'' or a knot of lines scrunched up in frustration. The strips were just the beginning. In 1952 Mr. Schulz started turning out ''Peanuts'' books: ''Peanuts,'' ''More Peanuts,'' ''Good Grief, More Peanuts!'' ''Good Ol' Charlie Brown,'' ''Happiness Is a Warm Puppy'' and dozens more. New compilations rolled off the presses every year for decades. Eventually ''Peanuts'' was translated into Serbo-Croatian, Malay, Chinese, Tlingit, Catalan and 15 other languages.

Books came out with titles like, ''Het Grote Snoopy Winterspelletjes-Boek'' and ''Du Bist Sub, Charlie Braun.'' The 1960's brought animated ''Peanuts'' television specials. The first was ''A Charlie Brown Christmas,'' which Mr. Schulz wrote in one weekend with Lee Mendelson. Accompanied by Vince Guaraldi's jazz piano, animated by Bill Melendez and unassisted by any laugh track, ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' was shown on CBS in 1965 (and still runs every winter). It won an Emmy and a Peabody. Many more television specials followed, including ''It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.'' Five of the specials won Emmys. There were also ''Peanuts'' feature films, including ''A Boy Named Charlie Brown.'' The takeoffs came rolling in. In 1966 the Royal Guardsmen wrote a rock song, ''Snoopy and the Red Baron.'' In 1967 a musical, ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown,'' was produced Off Broadway.

(A 1999 revival on Broadway won two Tony Awards.) ''Peanuts Gallery,'' a concerto, was composed by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and had its premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1997. Mr. Schulz received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture. In 1990 his work was shown at the Louvre; the gala had Snoopys in couture. Many pundits tried to put their finger on the ''Peanuts'' spell and they generally rambled on in a vaguely philosophical vein. Umberto Eco, who wrote the introduction to the first Italian ''Peanuts'' book, referred to Mr. Schulz's work as ''poesie interrompue,'' or interrupted poetry, and, using Freud, Beckett, Adler and Thomas Mann to back him up, said, ''These children affect us because in a certain sense they are monsters; they are the monstrous infantile reductions of all the neuroses of a modern citizen of the industrial civilization.'' In an essay called ''Peanuts: The Americanization of Augustine,'' Arthur Asa Berger, a scholar of popular culture, observed that Mr.

Schulz was ''a mirthful moralist'' and a master of Freudian humor, humor that ''serves to mask aggression.'' Mr. Berger called Snoopy ''an existential hero in every sense of the term,'' a dog who ''strives, with dogged persistence and unyielding courage, to overcome what seems to be his fate -- that he is a dog.'' He is ''a bon vivant, he participates in history, he has an incredible imagination, he is witty, he expresses himself with virtuosity in any number of ways (eye movements, ear movements, tail movements, wisecracks, facial expressions) and he is superb as mimic and dancer.'' The most concerted attempt to bring ''Peanuts'' to heel philosophically came in the 1960's when Robert L. Short, a minister, wrote two books on ''Peanuts'' theology, ''The Gospel According to Peanuts'' (1964) and ''The Parables of Peanuts'' (1968). The Rev.

Short saw signs of original sin in the ''Peanuts'' children, who were unable ''to produce any radical change for the better in themselves -- or in each other.'' He saw ''the hazard of worshiping deities'' demonstrated in Linus's belief in the Great Pumpkin. And he called Snoopy ''a typical Christian,'' a flawed character who is nonetheless good: ''He is lazy, he is a 'chow hound' without parallel, he is bitingly sarcastic, he is frequently a coward,'' Mr. Short wrote. But he is ''a hound of heaven.'' If the ''Peanuts'' characters left themselves open to the maunderings of philosophers, ministers and analysts, they were even more vulnerable to toy, card, book and clothing manufacturers. The licensing madness began in 1958 when the first plastic Snoopy and Charlie Brown came out. In 1960 Hallmark began printing ''Peanuts'' cards and party goods. Then came sweatshirts and pajamas, thermoses and lunch boxes. Plush Snoopy came in 1965. Woodstock slippers, Lucy picture frames, Charlie Brown music boxes followed. Mr.

Schulz vetted all products for appropriateness and rejected some: baby wipes for aesthetic reasons, ashtrays, vitamins, sugary breakfast cereals, ice skates and tennis rackets. There were commercials too. In 1957 the ''Peanuts'' characters started selling Ford Falcons. For 15 years they worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Snoopy was the official mascot of NASA, and in 1969 NASA's lunar excursion module on the Apollo 11 mission was called Snoopy. The command module was Charlie Brown. A Menagerie Of Merchandising By 1999 there were 20,000 different new products each year adorned by ''Peanuts'' characters. In 1994 Mr. Schulz was inducted into the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association Hall of Fame. Jim Davis, the creator of the cartoon ''Garfield,'' who is no stranger to commercialization, said, ''Schulz created the industry as far as cartooning and licensing go.'' When asked whether he minded his characters selling merchandise, Mr.

Schulz said, ''I don't think there's such a thing as going commercial with a comic strip because a comic strip is a commercial right from the beginning.'' It is there to sell newspapers, he said. In 1989 Forbes listed the cartoonist among the ten wealthiest entertainers, earning $32 million a year. Nonetheless his lifestyle remained simple. Mr. Schulz, who hated to travel, said he would have been happy living his whole life in Minneapolis. But ''I had a restless first wife,'' so they moved to Sebastopol, Calif., and he set up his studio in Santa Rosa. In 1969, after the local ice rink closed, he and his wife, Joyce, built a new one, the Redwood Empire Ice Skating Arena. ''Because of Snoopy's hockey playing,'' Mr. Schulz explained, ''I have to keep in the game. So I bought an arena.'' Charles and Joyce Schulz had five children, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1972.

He said, ''I don't think she liked me anymore, and I just got up and left one day.'' A year later he met Jeannie Clyde at the ice rink and married her. Mr. Schulz's workday typically began with a trip in his Mercedes (license plate WDSTK1, after Woodstock) down from the hills near where he lived, breakfast at the ice rink's Warm Puppy Snack Bar, a trip to his stone-and-redwood studio at One Snoopy Place to draw his strip, lunch at the ice rink, more work in the afternoon in his studio and dinner at a restaurant with his wife. While his small staff dealt with the commercial end of the business, he attended only to drawing. He used a yellow legal pad for sketching and drew with an Esterbrook Radial pen. He would start doodling until something funny happened. He never took suggestions from anyone (though he did draw on conversations, newspapers, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, and his children's antics. ''Drawing a daily comic strip is not unlike having an English theme hanging over your head every day for the rest of your life,'' he once said.

He could do a strip an hour and six strips a day, but preferred not to. He generally kept three months ahead of publication and never took more than ten days off at a time, and then only reluctantly. ''Peanuts'' continued to appear when Mr. Schulz had quadruple-bypass heart surgery in 1981. And it was only under orders from United Feature that he took off for five weeks in 1997 for his 75th birthday. Jeannie Schulz once said that all the characters in ''Peanuts'' are parts of her husband. ''He's crabby like Lucy, diffident like Charlie Brown. There's a lot of Linus -- he's philosophical and wondering about life.'' Like Schroeder, he loved classical music, though he preferred Brahms to Beethoven. And like Snoopy, he was a war buff. Snoopy had all of World War I covered. But Mr. Schulz knew all the World War II battlegrounds and was the head of a capital fund-raising campaign for the National D-Day Memorial. He was a member of the Church of God, where he was a Sunday school teacher and administrator and would occasionally deliver the Sunday sermon. People described Mr.

Schulz as looking like a druggist. He found Garry Trudeau's ''Doonesbury'' and Walt Kelly's ''Pogo'' too political, but he admired the work of Cathy Guisewite, the cartoonist who draws ''Cathy,'' and Ms. Johnston, of ''For Better or for Worse.'' His favorite ice cream flavor was vanilla. Mr. Schulz is survived by his wife, a philanthropist, and his children: Meredith Hodges, who raises mules in Loveland, Colo.; Charles Jr. (called Monte), a novelist in Nevada City, Calif.; Craig, a private pilot in Santa Rosa; Amy Johnson, a homemaker with nine children in Alpine, Utah; and Jill Schulz Transki, who runs an in-line skating business with her husband in Santa Barbara, Calif. He is also survived by two stepchildren, Brooke Clyde, a lawyer in Santa Rosa, and Lisa Brockway, a homemaker in Ashland, Oregon; and 18 grandchildren.

Personal Anxieties Shared With Millions Despite his large family and large success he was a melancholy man who worried and was often lonely, depressed and plagued by panic attacks, features that Rheta Grimsley Johnson brought out in her 1989 biography ''Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz.'' Sally, Charlie Brown's sister, put it well in a school report on night and day: ''Daytime is so you can see where you're going. Nighttime is so you can lie in bed worrying.'' Mr. Schulz had a white terrier named Andy, played golf (12 handicap), tennis (for a while with Billie Jean King) and bridge. But he was most devoted to hockey and ice skating. He was a right-handed shot. He hated cats, coconut and sleeping away from home. And he never forgot a slight. Ms. Johnston once said, ''He's bitter about the little red-haired girl who didn't marry him, he's bitter about his divorce, he's bitter about getting old.'' And he was bitter about the lack of recognition cartoonists get. This is what he said about cartooning: ''It will destroy you.

It will break your heart.'' The creator of one of the least troubled dogs of all time, Mr. Schulz compared his own panic to that of a dog ''running frantically down the road pursuing the family car.'' The dog ''is not really being left behind,'' he said, ''but for that moment in his limited understanding, he is being left alone forever.'' As Mr. Schulz got older he began to think about the end of his strip. His hand quavered, but he knew that he did not want anyone else to draw the cartoon. ''Everything has to end,'' he once said. ''This is my excuse for existence. No one else will touch it.'' In November he was hospitalized for colon cancer and started chemotherapy. On Dec. 14 he announced that his strip would end. But thoughts of death had long since seeped into his strip. ''After you've died, do you get to come back?'' Linus once asked Charlie Brown. He replied, ''If they stamp your hand.'' Mr. Schulz always felt for the little man and the little animal. He once said that his philosophy of life could be found in the Gospel of St.

Luke: ''It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.'' Intertwined Lives: Complex 'Peanuts' Personalities and Their Creator Charlie Brown Also known as Blockhead, Good Ol' Charlie Brown, Chuck, Charles and Mr. Sack (which he was briefly called when he wore a sack over his head at camp to cover up a rash that looked like the stitching on a baseball). First appearance Oct. 2, 1950. Named for Charles M. Schulz's acquaintance, Charlie Brown. (As Mr. Schulz remembered the namesake, ''He was a very bright young man with a lot of enthusiasm for life. I began to tease him about his love for parties and I used to say, 'Here comes good ol' Charlie Brown, now we can have a good time.' '') Sister Sally Unrequited love The Little Red-Haired Girl. True friends Linus, various pen pals (beginning on Sept. 1, 1958). Accomplishments Had numerous footballs pulled from under him by Lucy, beginning on Nov.

16, 1952. Managed baseball team that never won. Hit one home run, on March 30, 1993. (''Winning is great, but it isn't funny,'' Mr. Schulz explained.) Lost many kites to vicious trees. Served as camp president when he was known as Mr. Sack. Traits Round-headed, plain, gentle, decent, optimistic, unpopular, anxious. Snoopy Siblings Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, Andy. Adopted by NASA, as a promotional stunt in 1968. Accomplishments Walking on hind feet, thinking thoughts and sleeping on a pitched-roof doghouse, starting in 1960. (''There were other events, but the best thing I ever thought of was Snoopy using his own imagination,'' Mr. Schulz said. ''I don't recall how he got on top of the doghouse, but the first time he fell off, the strip ended with his saying, 'Life is full of rude awakenings.' '') Battled the Red Baron from his Sopwith Camel doghouse, beginning on Oct.

10, 1965, often shouting his fighting words, ''Curse you, Red Baron.'' Occupations Surgeon (in order to wear green booties), artist, lawyer, beagle scout with bird troop, skating coach and, beginning on July 12, 1965, novelist (published ''It Was a Dark and Stormy Night'' in 1971) and more than 100 other roles. Traits Epicurean, worldly, debonair, confident, fanciful, insistent about supper. Lucy Van Pelt Also known as Fussbudget and once called ''Crab grass on the lawn of life'' by Linus. First appearance March 3, 1952. Inspiration Mr. Schulz's daughter Meredith. (''We called our oldest daughter, Meredith, a fussbudget when she was very small.'') Brothers Linus, Rerun Unrequited love Schroeder (smitten on May 30, 1953). Accomplishments Pulling numerous footballs out from under Charlie Brown, beginning on Nov.

16, 1952; ran curbside psychiatric clinic for five cents a visit, beginning on March 27, 1959; master of the short psychiatric session. Famous words spoken to Snoopy on April 25, 1960, ''Happiness is a warm puppy.'' Traits Crabby, vain, loud, bossy, lousy outfielder. Linus Van Pelt Mother Someone who puts strange notes in his lunch box. Friend Charlie Brown. Beloved teacher Miss Othmar. Accomplishments Carried his blanket everywhere, starting on Jan 1, 1955. (Mr. Schulz remembered, ''I did not know then that the term 'security blanket' would later become part of the American language.'') Sat in many a pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin with no results, starting on Oct. 28, 1959, when he confused Halloween with Christmas. Knew when to quote St. Paul and other religious figures. Patted birds on head. Traits Philosophical, loyal, self-possessed, literate, adept with blanket on ball field.

Peppermint Patty Also called ''Sir'' (by Marcie), Patricia Reichardt (her real name). First appearance Aug. 22, 1966. Inspiration ''A dish of candy that was sitting around the house,'' Mr. Schulz said. Unrequited love Charlie Brown (Chuck). True friend Marcie. Accomplishments Earned many D-minuses; slept in every possible position on desk in front of Marcie in school and dreamed unhelpful dreams; once entered an ice-skating competition (coached by Snoopy) that turned out to be a roller-skating competition. Traits Unruly hair, good athlete, tomboy. Schroeder First appearance May 30, 1951. Inspiration ''A toy piano which we had bought for our oldest daughter, Meredith, eventually became the piano which Schroeder uses for his daily practicing,'' Mr. Schulz said. Why Beethoven? ''It is funnier that way. My favorite composer is Brahms -- I could listen to him all day -- but Brahms isn't a funny word, Beethoven is.'' Accomplishments Played Beethoven on toy piano with black keys painted on.

Fended off Lucy's amorous overtures. Traits Focused, serious, handsome, single-minded. Spike Accomplishments Lying on rocks; snuggling with tumbleweeds; brief stint in infantry. Traits Tired eyes, droopy mustache, bored, blase. Woodstock First appearance April 4, 1967. Named June 22, 1970. ''For some time, a flock of birds had hung around Snoopy's house,'' Mr. Schulz said. ''One of them, particularly scatterbrained and clumsy, finally eclipsed the others.'' Friend Snoopy and various birds. Accomplishments Birdbath hockey; camping; hiking; marshmallow roasts. Traits Communicating in tick marks, which Snoopy could understand. Rerun First appearance March 26, 1973. First mention May 23, 1972. Named May 31, 1972. Siblings Lucy and Linus. Accomplishments Softening Lucy's temper and surviving many rides in his mother's dangerous bicycle seat. ''His only fear is being the passenger on one of his mother's bicycle-riding errands,'' Mr.

Schulz said. ''Somehow, Rerun is the only witness to her riding into grates and potholes.'' Traits Often mistaken for Linus, but wore overalls and was more skeptical; longed for a dog of his own and occasionally borrowed Snoopy. Marcie First appearance June 18, 1968, when she met Peppermint Patty at camp. Best friend Peppermint Patty, whom she called Sir ''out of admiration and misguided manners,'' Mr. Schulz said. Accomplishments Sat behind Peppermint Patty at school and shared homework and test answers with her. True love Charles (Charlie Brown). Traits Glasses, brainy, naive, not sportive. Little Red-Haired Girl First mention Nov. 11, 1963. First appearance Never. Once seen in silhouette on May 25, 1998. Inspiration Mr. Schulz's ''real-life love for red-haired Donna Johnson, whom I courted when I was a young man in Saint Paul. She chose someone else as I was about to propose to her, and that broke my heart.'' Accomplishments Winning Charlie Brown's heart. Traits Never seen, often missed, cute.

Franklin First appearance July 31, 1968; he met Charlie Brown at the beach. (''They'd never met before because they went to different schools,'' Mr. Schulz said of Franklin, an African-American character, ''but they had fun playing ball so Charlie Brown invited Franklin to visit him.'' Accomplishments Center fielder on baseball team. Quoted the Old Testament and talked about his grandfather. Traits No anxieties or obsessions. Sally

Question: Lunar 10's Lunar Excursion Module was named after which famous character?
Answer: Snoopy